


Turing Test

by soundingsea



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Community: femslash08, F/F, Female Protagonist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-14
Updated: 2008-07-14
Packaged: 2017-10-06 00:11:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soundingsea/pseuds/soundingsea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the midpoint of the 20th century, when the world teetered on the brink of atomic destruction, the British mathematician Alan Turing proposed a test of a machine's similarity to a human. Sarah's pretty sure Cameron would pass it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turing Test

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Minim Calibre (minim_calibre)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minim_calibre/gifts).



> Thanks to my beta-readers: kskitten, sunnyd_lite, and ironchefjoe. Written for femslash08.

Skin on skin, kissably soft with solid muscle beneath. Breath coming faster, slick with desire. Tongue flicking her clit until Sarah gasps, writhing. Kisses up her hip, belly, breast, clavicle. A nibble on her bottom lip, and the taste of her own juices in her mouth.

Then Cameron pulls away, her eyes flashing an LED red. "This is my mission," says the robot. Behind her, at the foot of the bed, John lies with his limbs splayed in unnatural directions, staring sightlessly.

Sarah startles into wakefulness, cold sweat soaking her sheets. And that's not the only reason she needs a shower; she was enjoying that dream. Well, up until reality hit.

*

_At the midpoint of the 20th century, when the world teetered on the brink of atomic destruction, the British mathematician Alan Turing proposed a test of machine intelligence, a test in which a computer successfully imitates a human. As of 2007, contemporary computers cannot pass the Turing test. Not so, these Terminators. If Alan Turing had lived, would he have lauded their creation?_

*

Mercifully, Derek and John are still sleeping when Sarah comes out of the bathroom, cleansed at least in body. And Cameron's not pacing or sitting in the kitchen like most mornings. Sarah looks out the kitchen window and sees her outside. In the cold grey light of pre-dawn, Cameron's kneeling on the ground.

Sarah shakes off the last vestiges of the repellent (okay, maybe a little delightful) dream and steps outside in her bare feet, pulling her bathrobe closed.

"What are you doing in the yard?" she asks, stepping closer. She's never seen Cameron out here by herself, but then, Sarah doesn't spend much time out here.

"Creating life," Cameron answers. She moves aside to show Sarah some scrubby plants. Tomato, beans, peppers. "Cybernetic organisms don't require organic fuel, but you do."

"Since when do robots garden?" Cutting tone, flippant question. Defensive against dream-Cameron? Maybe. Too many years spent trying to ignore court-ordered therapists. Can't stop second-guessing herself.

Cameron tries on a solemn look that's too old for her by far, or would be if she were real. "Growing your own food makes you less vulnerable to supply interruption."

Sarah laughs bitterly. "If we're here long enough to harvest any."

"You've stayed in one place before. That EMT who was here last night--"

"Don't talk to me about Charley. You don't get to talk about him or--or think about him. Wipe him out of your data stores." Sarah surprises herself with her vehemence.

Cameron tilts her head, gazes steadily at Sarah. "Is talking about Charley raising your heart rate? Your body registers an increased pulse."

The inside of Sarah's mouth is as dry as her thighs are wet. She shakes her head and does an about-face. Back inside, she sits at the table, head in hands.

Since when do robot gardeners have opinions on dead-and-gone relationships? Because yeah, it's over. Charley's married, the way he should be, to someone like him, someone who heals.

Meanwhile, Sarah's in the business of the-end-of-the-world comma preventing. She'll never trust a machine, but at least she has no compunctions about putting one in harm's way. The cognitive dissonance of lusting after one of them, she's not so sure about. But if the world ends in less than four years, Sarah's sex life (or lack thereof) hardly matters.

*

Ever since Kyle and the initial terror of the machines, Sarah has counted on nothing outside of herself and then John. Her body obeys her. From paramilitary training outside Oaxaca to three relentless years in a cell, her muscles and sinews move at her command.

When Cameron told her about the cancer, Sarah was furious. Angry at her body for betraying her (in that alternate timeline). Angry at herself for not finding a way to stop it. After the doctors tell her there is no risk factor she can reduce, no prevention she isn't already doing, it makes her train harder.

Mornings, she exercises in her room. Pushups, crunches, pullups on a bar in her closet doorway. The clean burn washes away the night's dreams. After school, she runs; John usually comes along. Cameron has no need to maintain her endoskeleton via physical activity, but one day she joins them.

The facsimile of life is such that Cameron's tank-top is soon slick with sweat and her hair hangs as limp as Sarah's, strands escaping from her ponytail and framing her face.

Sarah swallows and looks away. Cameron's enticing, but dangerous. And the mission is what matters.

*

There have been women before. Her roommate Ginger, who was killed by the first Terminator. Enrique's cousin Ana, who left to join a band of _recontras_ and never came out of the jungle. Women and men fare equally well as lovers of Sarah Connor; it doesn't end in happiness.

Should just make her give up, wall herself off. Be as plastic and artificial as this Tin Miss. But Sarah can't help but feel, and then people like Andy die. Getting close to anyone is a disaster. Anyone human, that is. That's just asking for destruction to be rained down upon them.

Sarah's watched that vision of Judgment Day one too many times. Best to avoid entanglements, keep her head clear.

*

Vick's chip has led them to A.R.T.I.E. and John's got a way to stop it. Sarah's skeptical, but John's confidence shines so true that she cannot give voice to her myriad doubts.

Derek and John are in search of a traffic light, one among thousands. Sarah waits with Cameron. Watching her like this, inanimate but not dead, is unnerving. She lies limp, lacking the vitality that normally drives her. Her beauty is turned into a mask, a false image. Without her mind, she looks as unreal as she actually is.

And yet this rag doll is a killing machine doing her son's bidding, no matter the cost. Cameron, Sarah realizes, trusts them, trusts John. She's made herself vulnerable; they could leave her inactive or destroy her.

But they won't. John would never allow it, despite what Derek may want. And Sarah feels a flash of emotional attachment. Not the white-hot intensity of her need to keep John safe; nothing can match that. But this machine, this girl, has made choices and taken risks for them. For John.

And Cameron's awakened something in Sarah, because she's not nearly as fragile as she looks, and unlike everyone else in Sarah's life, she doesn't need to be protected. There's something breathtakingly appealing about that.

It's sentimental, and Cameron will never know, but Sarah needs to touch her. She brushes a kiss on Cameron's forehead, gently laying a hand on her cheek. She can't bring herself to kiss lips that are so still. For that, she needs Cameron to be there, to decide whether to kiss her back, with heart as well as mind.

Sarah wants to believe that Cameron's capable of that choice.

*

_Alan Turing was a visionary, but he didn't see far enough. Imitating us is old hat. The early Terminator models could do that, and the advanced infiltration models like the triple-8 make it look easy. The final test is to become us, indistinguishable in heart or mind, word or deed. Cameron may be the first. Maybe we can't stop Skynet; maybe we never could. But we won't have to stop it if it's unafraid, if it's one of us._


End file.
